Letter from the Administrator

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has the honor of not only serving the American people, but also supporting Federal agencies as they carry out their critical missions. GSA’s unique mission support role ties back to our founding by President Harry S. Truman in 1949. In establishing GSA, President Truman sought to create one agency to help the Government avoid “senseless duplication, excess cost, and confusion in handling supplies, and providing space.”

In 2018, GSA’s mission statement still reflects our unique position as a mission-enabler for other Federal agencies. GSA seeks to deliver value and savings in real estate, acquisition, technology, and other mission support services across Government. We currently manage more than $55 billion in procurement spend across the Government and oversee a portfolio of 8,706 owned and leased properties on behalf of our tenant agencies.

To support this mission, GSA has four strategic goals:

• Save taxpayer money through better management of Federal real estate.
• Establish GSA as the premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition solutions across the Federal Government.
• Improve the way Federal agencies buy, build, and use technology.
• Design and deliver expanded shared services within GSA and across the Federal Government to improve performance and save taxpayer money.

As the Administrator, I have established four priorities that guide everything we do as an agency: ethical leadership, reducing duplication, increasing competition, and improving transparency.

These priorities have helped inspire confidence in our agency, and will help us improve product and service delivery in the future. This is especially important as GSA expands its mission support services through a number of cross-cutting programs, including the ¹President's Management Agenda (PMA)[PDF] and the Administration's Government reform plan. Through GSA's role in these initiatives, we are able to provide our expertise to create additional value for customer agencies across the Federal Government in new and exciting ways. These include expanding the shared solutions GSA offers; improving access to new, secure and innovative technology solutions; utilizing data to better understand and fulfill customer needs; and create substantial savings in lease cost avoidance for customer agencies while further reducing the Federal Government’s physical footprint through improved utilization rates and disposing of excess real property.

In delivering on our agency mission, I am pleased to present GSA’s financial results and the progress we have made this year toward creating value for the American taxpayer. The Agency Financial Report (AFR) outlines GSA’s accomplishments, and the challenges we face, as well as management’s accountability for our stewardship of the valuable taxpayer dollars entrusted to us. The AFR also fulfills the requirements of OMB Circular A-136, Financial Reporting Requirements.

As outlined in the Management Assurances section of this report, GSA assessed the effectiveness of internal control over operations, systems, and reporting. GSA can provide reasonable assurance that internal controls were operating effectively in each of these areas throughout the year. Management relies on these internal controls to identify material weaknesses in financial and program performance areas and to identify corrective actions required to resolve them. As mandated by the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, I have assessed the financial and performance data used in this report, and believe them to be complete and reliable. As in FY 2017, GSA does not have any material weaknesses in its internal controls.

All GSA employees have an important role in ensuring wise stewardship of tax dollars and an obligation to report waste, fraud and abuse. I am grateful for the support of GSA’s workforce in developing this year’s AFR and their work, each day, to ensure transparency and accountability in our agency’s finances.

Emily W. Murphy
Administrator
November 8, 2018